The Duplex Pyramids
INNER INTENTIONAL PROCESSES
MEDIATING BETWEEN EXTERNAL STRUCTURES
AND SYSTEMS AND INTERNAL STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES
BY Edwin L. Young, PhD
Click to see the full explication of: A Model of the Processes of Intentionality
Using intentionality processes is a more dynamic approach than the levels of structure and processes of the bottom pyramid. The inner Intentionality Processes are not just more dynamic, they integrate the bottom and top pyramids. To illustrate how a few of the more basic or rudimentary Intentionality Processes could assist in understanding how the individual relates to the world, consider doing the following exercises or thought experiments.
You could examine, or attend to, the processes of perception of a single individual, or how they uniquely tend to perceive their world.
You could examine the unique way a person retrieves schemata and schemes just referred to in the external structures.
You could examine the way the person tends to assess their schemata of the external world and their internal world.
You could examine
the pleasure and pain sensations and feelings the person experiences and the
way these hedonic reactions shape
their personality and steer their navigation through the world.
You could examine
how this steering occurs. From the Natural Systems perspective, it seems to
occur through a kind of categorizing
of the experiences whereby some experiences, pain or pleasure, are incorporated and some are
disincorporated while some we could
say are pseudo-incorporated or pseudo-disincorporated. These pseudo categories are like faking it
inside the head but leads to
faking it in relation to others. Some pain and pleasure sensations and feelings are simply the subject
of ongoing hopeful curiosity or
pessimistic questioning, or just left open-ended. Finally, some, whether physically painful or
pleasure-ful, have to be repressed. In
other words, peoples' inner worlds are chopped up or parceled into these various states. The way the
content of the world falls into
these states or categories forms their worldview.
You could examine
the content of how they envision the future as based on these
states of "incorporation". You could also examine
how they envision what might possibly happen in the future and what they might possibly do in the
future. These are highly significant
inner processes.
You could examine
how they use these processes to select the criteria that will make them feel
fulfilled. This is a fulcrum concept as,
although it hidden, often from the person themselves, this process, nevertheless, is the guiding
principle of their life. Resolving the
discrepancy between the demands of external structures and their inner criteria for fulfillment by
making decisions and then setting
goals is a crucial process Often a person will go through all of these processes up to this point of
setting criteria for fulfillment and
then will have a sense of 'foreshadowing' of how it is going to turn out. This foreshadowing that may
be bleak or optimistic, while the
actual outcome could be quite different from their foreshadowing. Often people can tell you about this
experience of fulfillment or lack
of it and matching or not matching their foreshadowing. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves here.
Once they have gone through all of these
processes, which occur very rapidly, they usually engage in the adventure of trying to
achieve their goal and then, at the end, experiencing degrees of that sense of fulfillment that comes
from their reaching their criteria.
Normally they will meet obstacles and barriers along the way and will have to disengage, review or mirror what they have
done and
how they have done it as well as what they have encountered along the way, revise some part of their
strategy or plan and then re
-engage.
Finally, the person will come to the completion phase in which they have had varying degrees of success or failure.
Sometimes, at this
point, they will make revisions once again but then, in the end, they will always store their
experiences in a memory bank of schemata
and schemes for future use.
Now, take your insights with respect to the above and imagine some aspect of a program. Imagine a variety of ways of changing that aspect. As you do this, imagine what you suspect or expect would change in the subjects of participants in your program. Also, try to imagine what the long term effects will be. Do you think the changes will endure? Will, perhaps, the subject revert to the way they were prior your intervention? Can you observe or test these anticipated outcomes?
Natural Systems, with its Duplex Pyramid, uses these external structures and systems and internal structures and processes to bring a holistic perspective to the human problems we face. It provides a framework that can guide those who have the responsibility to design programs. With the Duplex Pyramid approach, one can approach a problem by systematically looking at the external structures and systems and the internal structures and processes all together and then consider how each element of the Duplex Pyramid will influence the other. This is the opposite of the more fragmented, narrow approaches that are often taken in such problem solving situations in the modern, complex world. This seems to be the more natural and 'human-friendly', as well as, in the end, the more practical, approach. As modern society itself has become so complex and fragmented that it is now 'not natural' (or rather not easy) to take the natural approach. Natural Systems is an attempt to bring back the 'human-friendly', natural approach. However, now it has to be re-learned and, as it were, updated to the complexity of the modern world. Consequently, The Natural Systems Institute is dedicated to (re-)educating leaders in the human services areas in this holistic, human-friendly, method of analysis of social problems as well as re-educating them in how to design human programs, making sure that their methods are based on the Duplex Pyramids and the Intentionality Model. When using Natural Systems to design programs, it is necessary to think through how External Structures and Systems might affect both Internal Structures and Processes and Intentionality Processes. It is not an easy task. It is also time-consuming. In addition, it means that one must experiment with each aspect of External Structures and Systems to see how alternative designs alter selected Intentionality Processes and selected Internal Structures and Processes. An obvious and elementary example would be to see how more strict or restrictive programs versus more lenient or permissive ones differentially alter observable behavior. If you invest the energy and time in learning the Natural Systems approach and method and practice using it, then I feel quite sure that the dividends will be surprisingly huge.
Visitors
Introduction to the Theory Underlying the Natural Systems Institute
A New Paradigm for Psychological Treatment Based on Natural Systems
Stages of Growth in Maturity and Suggestions for How to Facilitate that Growth
A Description of Natural Systems' Structural Theory of Personality
Postings of Essays Addressing Major Problematic Issues in Our Culture
A Plan for Restructuring the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department
Originated by Edwin L. Young on 1/1982 Updated on 10/11/2009
mailto:naturalsystems at att dot net